“Red for the blood we make our foes bleed
White for the honor that goes down to our bone
Grey for the death-shroud we defiantly meet
In whose face we stand as we defend our home.” - Blodgevir Hymn
Ancient legends whispered throughout Lannock tell of a mythic warrior, a
man who fought off hordes of threats to his homeland with such ferocity
that Daud himself feared to bring him to Val-Noran. This warrior was
known as the Rodinnhjörtr, the Bloody Red Stag, and it was said that in
times of great need he would return to this world through his descendants
to fight for his homeland once more. Visions of this Bloody Red Stag have
haunted Bregnor for years and have driven him to find the truth of these
stories. He is a descendant of a great warrior, could he be the Rodinnhjörtr
reincarnated? He seeks the truth of these stories, and to become worthy of
the title of “the Bloody Stag” of which he has become known.
This quest inspired others to follow him, wandering warriors from the roots
of the Hearthlands who fought as mercenaries across Adrasil that came to
be known as “Antlers”. The Antlers brought hearty amounts of coin to the
Hearthguard and caught the eye of the Queen Tove, who sanctioned the
Antlers as a mercenary guild in service to the Hearthlands. With this action
came a request, that the best of these ranks of warriors would be formed
into a fist of shieldkin that would answer the call of the Queen and her Jarls
to war.
Bregnor, now a Huskarl, looked to his growing Antlers and decided that
three main tenets must be followed, and those that wholly embodied these
tenets would be chosen as his shieldkin fist. They must fight with ferocious
skill, always being the first to carve a battlefield red with blood; they must
have infallible honor to their people, their home, and their leader; and they
must never falter in the face of death, but stare it down defiantly and fight to
the bitter end. In these ways the Antlers would honor their people, their
home, their leader, and the legacy of the Rodinnhjörtr, becoming vestiges
of his legend to write their names into the annals of the Hearthlands
forevermore. They would baptize their antlers in blood, becoming warriors
of legend.
They would become the Blodgevir.
ARMOR AND KIT
As the Blodgevir are travelers and mercenaries, they build their armor to
achieve a balance of mobility and protection. They must be ready to set
out on the road or head to a fight in a moment’s notice, so their armor must
be able to be donned easily and be worn for days at a time. The usage of
their armor can lead to wear and tear, and kit bashed pieces of gear as well
as asymmetric looks can help achieve this. Blodgevir are not opposed to
using their earnings for new armor to use as “statement” pieces, yet they
will still always try to find some use for their old gear.
The Blodgevir are also keen on the use of tokens and trinkets in their kit.
Each Blodgevir comes into service with an antler token to symbolize their
service with the Antler mercenaries, and they must blood it in their initiation
to the Blodgevir to symbolize their new path. Their antler is also adorned
with the colors of their Fist as red, white, and grey ribbons to symbolize
their devotion to the tenets of the Blodgevir and the Bloody Stag. As they
continue in their journeys in the Hearthlands and Olaran, they will be
outfitted with more ribbons to symbolize acts of devotion to each of the
tenets, becoming symbols of valor among their ranks.